November 10, 2016

Malaysia ready to face US policy change, says minister

The Malaysian government is always ready to face sweeping changes to the United States’ (US) policy course following Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the US presidential election, International Trade and Industry (MITI) Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said.

The minister said Malaysia enjoys great cooperation with all countries.

“We are friends with everyone. We are close to the US, China, Japan, with the Islamic countries, and we are close to our Asean neighbours, that is our policy.

“We are always ready (for any US policy change), and we need to monitor the situation,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the 2016 Malaysia Autoshow here today.

During his campaign, Trump among others said he opposed the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal, one that Malaysia has participated in.

On a question whether the 14 deals signed with China recently could cushion the impact on Malaysia’s economy if the TPP was cancelled, Mustapa said China’s contribution to the country’s economy is still small compared with the US, South Korea and Japan.

“I mentioned in Parliament today that we have US$7.5 billion (RM32.04 billion) in investments in China while Chinese investments here (in Malaysia) are worth US$2.5 billion.

“So, we have more Malaysian companies such as Parksons, Sime Darby, Genting and Khazanah (investing in China), and for every dollar that the Chinese have here, we have three dollars in China,” he said.

However, Mustapa was confident the growth rate of China’s contributions to Malaysia’s economy would be phenomenal as the republic was starting from a low base here.